Dark Oz

by Geneva Monroe

To the girls behind the bars, I walked the halls like a princess. To the men behind the guns, they saw only a ghost.

It felt like my entire sense of reality was being spun around in a tornado.

I will cherish the look of panic in his eyes for the rest of my life. “Fly, monkey, fly.”

“Because your parents took everything I ever loved, leaving only wickedness behind.”

“It’s a long story. The short version is that Nick’s family called me Leone, lion. The name started as a joke, but then I decided to claim it. Or maybe I was trying to fool myself into thinking I was something I wasn’t. I mean, who ever heard of a cowardly lion?

“I’d give every last bit of me to you freely, for the chance to hold a piece of you.”